The coal mine plans to build tourist and catering facilities and other facilities on the site of the former Cement mine, where medicinal plant plantations were built, which, according to the largest company in Pljevlja, would increase the tourist offer in Pljevlja.
This was said by the executive director of Rudnik Uglja, Milan Lekić, opening the Lavender Days event, which is being held in Pljevlja for the first time this year.
"We will build a parking lot for cars and buses, we will build catering facilities and create conditions so that our fellow citizens can come, but not only them, but also many tourists who pass through Pljevlja, and there are quite a few of them. A lot of them pass by, but no one stops in Pljevlja. We will do everything for them to have a place to come and enjoy and use products made from our plants," said Lekić.
The area where the plantation was planted, he pointed out, "was a big mockery and shame of Pljevlja".
"We now have a plantation of lavender, sage, thyme and myrrh in that area, and we have the opportunity to grow other types of medicinal herbs. We had a big problem to bring this kind of space to this kind of condition. We had the problem that we didn't have the personnel, knowledge, experience, or equipment to get the field right. We had no equipment to maintain the plants. We didn't have our nursery, but because of our persistence we brought this area to a level we can be proud of. Today, we have all the staff, for them, experience and equipment for preparing the ground, we have equipment for plant maintenance, we have a nursery, and that's why we set out ambitiously and in the fall we plan to plant 10 to 15 hectares of medicinal plants in our Rudnik", said Lekić at the event organized on the occasion of the beginning lavender harvest.
Lekić and the adviser to the President of Montenegro, Aleksandar Stijović, symbolically harvested the first lavender flowers.
Lekić reminded that the Coal Mine is obliged under the Law on Mining to renovate the area devastated by the exploitation of raw materials, i.e. carry out technical and agricultural reclamation.
"Unfortunately, until two years ago, that agricultural reclamation was carried out by sowing clover and growing clover. My colleagues and I, since I assumed the responsibility of managing the Coal Mine two and a half years ago, we have decided to carry out agrorecultivation by growing medicinal plants instead of clover and making medicinal plant products. That is why I am grateful to them for their understanding and persistence".
He thanked the company Rikom from Belgrade, which helped them realize this work, as well as the Ministry of Agriculture, which supported the event.
The advisor to the President of Montenegro, Aleksandar Stijović, said that the President of Montenegro, Jakov Milatović, was also attending the ceremony, who could not come to Pljevlja due to his commitments.
"It's a wonderful feeling to see all these hectares under lavender. This lavender is not just flowers, but a victory of courage over a problem that others could not face for decades," said Stijović.
He congratulated the management of the Mine and the employees "for making the most beautiful meadow in Montenegro out of a piece of land".
"This is an ecological classroom that shows how something that has been looted and destroyed for decades can be repaired. This is a model that tailings can be a resource, and that everything can have a resource when you have a vision. 30 people from Pljevlja are employed here," said Stijović.
The head of the service for agrotechnical and biological land reclamation, Radoslav Zečević, said that two years ago they started leveling or preparing the ground for the first planting of medicinal plants. Currently, 4,5 medicinal plant seedlings are planted on an area of 60.000 hectares.
"We have all the professional machines and equipment for tillage. We have a greenhouse production where about 150.000 hedges are currently planted, which will be ready for autumn planting on an area of 10 or 15 hectares, so we will succeed in three years to complete production on an area of about 20 to 25 hectares," said Zečević.
Agronomist Dosta Palibrk said that this year they harvested thyme and sage.
"We got three liters of essential oil from them, from an area of about a hectare. "The oil was sent for analysis to a laboratory in Slavonia, where it was confirmed that it meets the standards of the European Union," said Palibrk.
Tourismologist Marko Dragićević said that their intention is to make an offer on this plantation in order to keep passing tourists in Pljevlja for at least a day.
The plan is to build tourist catering facilities, a restaurant, viewpoints, and a souvenir shop for the sale of medicinal products will be built," said Dragićević.
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